67
I WILL GIVE BIRTH TO YOU, MY ANGEL
Victor’s sleeve. “So you’re leaving. You’ve turned my whole life upside
down, and now it’s good-bye?”
“How did I turn your life upside down?” Victor asked in amazement. “I
had a good time with you, and I don’t think you minded being with me,
either. Now you’ll have your own apartment and plenty of outfits. Live your
life, enjoy yourself, the way you wanted. Or do you want some money, too?”
“You really are a jerk. You really cut me to the quick. ‘An apartment, out-
fits, enjoy yourself…’”
“Whatever. Don’t make a scene. I’ve got important business. Good-bye.”
Victor took hold of the doorknob. But Inga held him back yet again, seiz-
ing his hand.
“No, sweetheart, wait. Please tell me: you asked me to have your baby.
Didn’t you?”
“Yes. I asked you, and you said no.”
“At first I said no. Then I spent two days thinking about it, and I agreed. I
quit grad school, gave up smoking, I’ve been exercising every morning, and
then I came across these books about life, about children, and I can’t put
them down. I’m studying the best way to give birth, and he’s all ‘Good-bye.’
But you’re the only one I can imagine as the father of our…”
When he realized what he’d heard, Victor impulsively hugged Inga, re-
peating over and over in a muffled whisper, “Inga… Inga…” Then he picked
her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. Carefully, as if she was
the greatest treasure, he laid her on the bed and hurried to get undressed.
More passionately than ever before, he embraced Inga as she lay on the bed,
and began kissing her breasts, her shoulders while trying to remove her robe,
but Inga suddenly offered silent resistance and began pushing him away.
“Settle down, please. This is not what’s important. To make a long story
short: we won’t be having any sex today. Or tomorrow. Or in a month,
either,” Inga informed him.
“What do you mean, no sex? But didn’t you just agree to have my baby?”
“Yes, I did.”
“So how are we going to have a baby if we don’t have sex?”
“The sex has to be entirely different. Fundamentally different.”
